


Embroidered Roses

by DelilahBlueEyes



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-24
Updated: 2014-08-24
Packaged: 2018-02-14 10:50:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2188953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DelilahBlueEyes/pseuds/DelilahBlueEyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Spinner!Rum and Belle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Embroidered Roses

“Good morning, Rum!” The words trickled down Rumpelstiltskin’s spine like cool water. No one else called him Rum. “What are you making today?”

He turned on his short stool to find his lovely neighbor leaning on the closed bottom half of his split front door (the top having been swung outward to let in light for his work) and smiled shyly. “Good morning, Belle.”

 

She looked lovely this morning, the early sunlight creating a halo around her gleaming auburn hair as she smiled sweetly at him with a wicker basket dangling from one of her hands. Her sky blue eyes were brighter than the actual sky that he could see behind her. They always were. He liked to pretend sometimes that the light he could see shining in her face something special that only appeared there when she turned onto the path to their cottage, perhaps only when the house came into view. Perhaps only when she arrived at the cottage and found him at his spinning wheel, which seemed to happen more often than not lately.

“Oh, just some plain thread to sell at market tomorrow.” He shrugged and bent to his basket of finished spools of thread, lifting one in his hands to fiddle with while he avoided her eyes. “Nothing special. What are you doing out and about so early, Belle?”

“Well, I woke early to start the day’s baking and found myself with the urge to go out for a walk. My father will manage without me for an hour or two.” She set the basket on the sill of the door and pulled out a folded handkerchief with a grin. “I brought you a few treats for while you work.”

“Oh, I-“

“Thanks, Belle!” A very tousle-headed ten year old scampered up, still in his nightshirt and plucked a pair of sweet rolls out of her hand. She laughed and barely managed to rub a hand over his unruly brunette hair before Bae was gone back to the back room of the cabin to eat and dress properly.

Rumpelstiltskin stood with the aid of his walking stick, limping toward Belle with another denial on his lips, wanting to ask that she at least let him pay for what she brought them. As she did every time she recognized the look on his face, she raised a hand and proffered the hand with the pastries toward him firmly.

“They’re the ones that came out of the oven wonky and papa didn’t think they would sell. Just like all of the other things I bring you, Rum.” She watched him sternly until he gave in and took a bite.

“You are too generous, as always,” he murmured around a mouthful of crusty, honey flavored bread and had to clear his throat at the brilliant smile and ringing little laugh she gave in response. He chewed slowly and swallowed, feeling heat rush to his face while she watched him eat with a smug but sincere kind of joy.

“This from the man who insists on giving me free samples of all his newest innovations. Oh! I haven’t showed you what I did with that lovely thread you gave me last week.”

She reached for the latch of the bottom half of the door and pulled it toward her, stepping aside to allow it to swing past her. His pastry turned to molasses in his throat and he choked harshly, hurrying over to a bucket of water he’d asked Bae to draw from the well the night before and scooping up a ladleful and gulping it down.

“Oh, dear. Are you alright?” Belle pressed her hand gently to the back of his neck and he tensed in an effort to hide his shudder at the skin-to-skin contact.

“I-uh…” He wheezed, sipping more slowly from the ladle, almost spewing it back over the basin when her fingernails scratched gently over the nape of his neck as her hand slipped down to rest between his shoulders. “I apologize. I’m not sure why that happened.”

Once he had cleared his throat and could breathe easily again he placed the ladle back into the bucket and pushed himself away from the corner of the cottage and away from her. His face burned when he looked up at her hesitantly and found her showing her beautiful teeth in a full, wide smile. She looked as if she were trying to keep herself from floating through his crumbling thatch roof.

“I think I do,” she replied, pushing her lovely, curling hair behind her ear and biting her lip. “I should go now but I’ll be back tomorrow to walk to market with you and Bae, if that’s alright with you?”

He nodded dumbly, only able to watch as she nodded in return and turned on her heel, snatching up her basket from where she’d dropped it in her haste to reach him as she swung the door closed again. With one last wave and a wink she strolled down the path. When he hobbled to the empty doorway to watch her go, he began to wheeze again.

As she sashayed away to a chorus of bird song (they always seemed to chirp more when she came to visit), he caught glimmers of bright patterns embroidered along the hem of her form hugging dress. Roses and blue jays and inarticulate but immaculately sewn patterns decorated the expanse of forest green cloth that comprised the flowing skirt. Lovely things sewn by her hand with his thread. The buttery yellow thread he’d gifted to her the previous week.

Oh, goodness. He stumbled back to the bucket of water and lifted it whole, drinking deeply to combat his rising panic and managing to spill half of it down the front of his tunic. When Bae returned to the front room and asked him with concern why he was positively soaking he only waved a hand vaguely and asked him to draw another bucket from the well. While he changed into his second best clothing to start the day’s work, he smiled goofily to himself. Perhaps he’d experiment with a new color of dye before she came tomorrow. A nice sky blue, that would just happen to match her sparkling eyes when the sun glinted off it…


End file.
